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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Crosstalk is our monthly column on the history, culture and processes of science.

"A cornerstone of the philosophy of logical reasoning and central
to the scientific method are the ideas of necessity and sufficiency –
deceptively simple ever so easily confused. We often confuse necessary
statements to imply sufficiency." writes Sunil Laxman.

For example, oxygen is necessary for life but not sufficient for life. In contrast, a sirloin beef steak is sufficient to provide all nutrients humans need but it isn’t necessary.
For sufficiency, only the necessary elements satisfying that particular
condition need to be present. Rarely do necessity and sufficiency together provide a powerful set of conditions for a statement to be true.

Let’s explore criteria throughout recorded history that have been necessary and sufficient
for a culture of science to flourish. While humans as a species have
thrived through the collection and utilisation of knowledge, there have
only been a few instances in history where a culture of science has
flourished in specific societies. While individual conditions enabling
this have been discussed, a closer inspection suggests four necessary conditions, which – when all are satisfied – are sufficient for science to thrive.

The existence of surplus resources, allowing individuals or groups to pursue curiosity-driven inquiry

A prevailing culture within that society allowing a free exchange of ideas, and questioning of dogma

A society exposed to a variety of ideas

A maximum use of human resources, where there is a critical mass of
educated people who can congregate, discuss and critique ideas.

Throughout history, there have been many societies with
instances of some of these conditions being met, resulting in scientific
advances. This is not sufficient to catalyse a larger culture of
scientific progress in that society. However, these four conditions have
been all met only twice in history, in two regions of the world, and
have come close to being satisfied in two other instances.

Ancient GreeceThe first case of satisfying most, but not all, of these conditions
was in classical Greece, particularly Athens. Athens became wealthy by
controlling trade in the Mediterranean through its powerful navy and
mercantile fleet, and through mines of silver. This meant surplus
resources for the pursuit of art and science. The second condition, of a
free exchange of ideas, was enabled by the then-unique concept of
public debate in Athenean democracy along with the setting up of
academies (by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others), where students
could openly debate ideas. This helped the development of logic as a
philosophy.Athens benefited by location, collecting different ideas from North
Africa, Asia Minor (particularly the Persian empire stretching east),
and the tribes of Europe. All of this boosted scientific endeavours.
However, despite democracy, the utilisation of human resources was
sub-optimal in Greece. Only Greeks were free citizens who could choose
their professions, and every one else was a slave with few options. The
Greek population was small, and intense rivalries limited long term
stability and prosperity (resulting in (1) vanishing). Given this, the
growth of science and art in Greece was itself remarkable.Read more... Source: The Wire

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About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.